The White Star Gate

"Careful! It's going to counterattack!"

Tang San, who had been on high alert, immediately cried out in alarm, several Bone-Piercing Nails already in his hand ready to be thrown.

Yu Xiaogang shouted urgently, "How dare you, beast! Luo Sanpao! Protect us!"

"Don't anyone move!"

Su Yun suddenly raised his hand and barked, stopping everyone in their tracks.

He didn't dodge.

Because the moment Bai Ze charged at him, he sensed not a shred of killing intent, but instead an extremely urgent, immensely powerful spiritual fluctuation.

Boom!

Bai Ze's forehead pressed against Su Yun's brow.

There was no sound, but in Su Yun's mind, it was as if a thunderclap had exploded.

A vast, obscure stream of information, carrying the weight of ages, surged like a tidal wave through the skin where they touched, flooding deep into Su Yun's consciousness.

It wasn't language or text.

It was a series of execution diagrams, optimized through countless iterations, stripped of all redundant steps.

Su Yun's pupils contracted violently.

He looked at the panting beast before him, blood streaming from its nose, yet its eyes brimming with a proud light. A storm raged in his heart.

Su Yun pushed up his glasses, the playful curve of his lips gradually widening.

"What a guy..."

Su Yun praised inwardly, his gaze toward Bai Ze completely transformed:

"Little one, to earn yourself a spot on the payroll, you really did... defy fate itself."

Since the other party had gone so far as to bring out this kind of ritual, it would be rude to keep being coy.

"Su Yun! What are you doing?!"

Seeing that Su Yun not only refrained from drawing his gun and firing but instead put away his weapon and even bit his own finger, Yu Xiaogang finally lost his composure.

He rushed over, spittle flying, his face etched with the anxious frustration of someone watching a fool walk into a trap:

"What are you doing? A blood oath? Su Yun! Snap out of it! Soul beasts are cunning—it's beguiling you!"

"For a soul master to advance, they must personally hunt a soul beast and absorb the Soul Ring it produces upon death! There has never been a precedent for peaceful coexistence! Doing this won't get you a Soul Ring—you'll be backlashed by your Soul Power and become a cripple!"

Tang San's expression was equally grave, ready to kill Bai Ze the moment it attacked:

"Brother Su, Grandmaster is right. Those not of our kind are bound to have different hearts. Killing it is the safe bet."

Faced with their clamor, Su Yun didn't even turn his head.

He raised his blood-tipped finger in the air, his gaze through the glasses fixed unwaveringly on Bai Ze before him.

"Grandmaster, your version needs an update!"

Su Yun extended his hand, the fingertip bearing a single crimson bead of blood, and gently pressed it against Bai Ze's smooth forehead.

"Bind."

This single word, as if crossing ten thousand years of time, carried the force of some supreme law, falling softly upon this primeval forest.

Hum—!

A gentle, warm, and utterly sacred golden light erupted instantly from the point of contact between man and beast.

Under the stunned, worldview-shattering gazes of the onlookers, Bai Ze's pure white body began to photonize.

It dissolved into countless crystalline golden particles.

These particles, like living spirits, danced joyfully around Su Yun in a circle, then converged into a brilliant river of stars, charging without hesitation into the Star Gate before him.

"Th-this soul beast... ascended to immortality?!"

Red Hair's eyes nearly popped out of his head, his mouth gaping wide enough to fit a lightbulb:

"Did he just... sacrifice himself?"

Boom—

Crack, crack, crack!

As Bai Ze's spiritual body poured in, the Star Gate behind Su Yun began to tremble violently.

The original icy blue light, after devouring Bai Ze's power, rapidly faded.

In its place emerged a radiant, jade-white, inviolable holy glow.

And at the very center of the top beam of the gate's frame, a relief of Bai Ze slowly materialized.

The relief's eyes were half-closed, its entire body emitting a faint fluorescence, like a guardian beast of this Gate of Truth, exuding a majesty that suppressed the heavens.

Then, an even greater change occurred.

Zzzt—

Boom!

Accompanied by a jarring sound of space tearing, the doorframe—originally less than a person's height and somewhat narrow—swelled up like it was being inflated! It stretched horizontally! It rose vertically! In just three seconds, a massive pure-white Star Gate, two meters wide and tall, stood imposingly before everyone!

It was at this moment.

The noisy static that had been buzzing in Su Yun's ears for so long vanished instantly.

Lei Zhan's rough, familiar voice came through, tinged with urgency and relief. "001! 001! Your signal was cut off for a full fifteen minutes! This is Lei Zhan! What's your situation over there?"

Hearing that long-missed roar, Su Yun pushed up his sunglasses, a relieved smile curling at the corner of his mouth. Everything was back. Not only back, but the bandwidth had expanded too. This little white sheep had done a damn fine job!

"Calm down, Captain Lei." Su Yun looked at the magnificent white gate before him and replied steadily, "Nothing major. Just did an expansion on our transmission link."

The light gradually faded. Everything fell silent. The lively Bai Ze had vanished, replaced by the quiet relief on the Star Gate. Su Yun could sense that when using his Martial Soul, as long as he willed it, this little creature would leap out from the relief to help him.

And beneath Su Yun's feet, a soul ring slowly rose. It wasn't the yellow of a hundred years. Nor the purple of a thousand years. It was a white soul ring. But it wasn't the sickly pale of an ordinary ten-year ring; instead, it had a translucent, crystal-like quality, with faint stars swirling within.

Complete silence fell.

Red Hair and the others didn't understand the implications; they just thought the gate had gotten bigger and whiter, looking quite impressive. "Whoa! Dad's Martial Soul changed color? That big white gate with a big white ring—looks classy! Is this the aesthetic of the strong?"

But the moment Yu Xiaogang saw that white soul ring, it was as if a thunderbolt had struck his crown. "Wh... white..." The notebook in his hand fell with a slap into the muddy ground. Yu Xiaogang's legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees with a thud, staring blankly, his eyes locked onto the white soul ring beneath Su Yun. His lips trembled. "Ten years... it's actually... a ten-year soul ring..."

"It's me... it's all because of me..." Yu Xiaogang suddenly grabbed at his own hair, his nails digging deep into his scalp. "I told you this was a top-tier mutated soul beast... I urged you to act... I thought it was at least a hundred years... I thought the mutation could make up for the lack of age... I personally pushed a peerless genius into a pit of fire..."

This massive logical conflict and crushing sense of responsibility directly shattered Grandmaster's already sensitive and fragile mental defenses. His eyes went vacant, drool dripped from his mouth, and he collapsed into the mud, beginning to mutter incoherently: "White... no... there are no useless Martial Souls... only... ah-ba... ah-ba ah-ba..."

Watching Grandmaster, who had fallen into a stupor from the overwhelming shock, Tang San's eyes held no pity—only blazing fury. "Worthless!"